Cryptile
|name = Cryptile |kingdom = Animalia |phylum = Chordata |class = Reptilia |order = Squamata |familia = Agamidae}} The '''cryptile' or cryptile lizard is a species of agamid lizard endemic to the Mediterranean Salt Flat of 5 million AD. It is one of the only vertebrate animals which can survive on the salt pan itself, as opposed to the karst plateaus dotting the region. Evoloution Since Lizards can survive in a wide diversification of environments particularily hot dry areas such as droughts, meaning they were already ready to adapt to life on the Mediterranean salt flats, they have longer limbs and have tenacious frills from loose skin around the neck, used for catching Brine flies from which they gain their moisture from. The Cryptile has not changed much from its ancestral counterpart. Biology Cryptiles are highly reminiscent of their 21st Century counterparts with longer limbs for sprinting across the Salt Flats and tenacious frills for catching flies which they gain their moisture from. Ecology Cryptiles are specially adapted to feed on brineflies, from which they receive all their nourishment, including moisture. Though their only predators on the salt are birds of prey, which cryptiles can camouflage themselves against, the salty environment means that female cryptiles cannot lay their eggs on the flat, where the salt would drain them of moisture, killing them. For this, she must travel to the karst plateaus and lay them in the soil down a safe gryke, narrow enough to prevent access by a gryken. Nevertheless, the eggs may be eaten by scrofas which shove their trunks down the grykes or even enter the grykes themselves, and the mother cryptile herself is a prey item for the gryken. Appearances In the documentary The cryptile appears in "The Vanished Sea". A pair mate near the beginning of the episode, and the female travels into a karst gryke, where she is chased by a gryken, to lay her eggs. Later, when the baby scrofa is lost on the salt pan, a cryptile runs past it, and is shown hunting brine flies along the edge of a hypersaline lake. List of appearances *''The Future Is Wild'' **1x01. Welcome to the Future **1x03. The Vanished Sea **''The Future Is Wild'' (US) *''The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future'' *''The Future Is Wild'' (fulldome show) *''The Future Is Wild: The Living Book'' Notes *The cryptile's name is derived from the Greek kryptos, meaning "hidden", in reference to its ability to effectively camouflage itself against the salt. *The cryptile was something of a mascot for the Futuroscope attraction Les Animaux du Futur (in which it appeared), appearing in promotional material. *There is a metal sculpture of the cryptile in Jean Rameau Park, Mont-de-Marsan, France, created by José Guirado. *Following the 5 million AD mass extinction, the fate of cryptile is unknown, although ''The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future '' states that the closure of the Mediterranean Salt Flats was due to falling sea levels caused by the ice age, not simply continental drift. Gallery Documentary= FIW_1x3_Cryptiles_running.png FIW_1x3_Cryptile_flat.png FIW_1x3_Cryptile_head.png FIW_1x3_Cryptiles_competing.png FIW_1x3_Cryptiles_mating.png FIW_1x3_Cryptile_leaving_gryke.png FIW_1x3_Cryptile_fleeing.png FIW_1x3_Scrofa_and_cryptile.png FIW_1x3_Cryptile_catching_flies.png |-|Promotional= Cryptile-lizard-600px.jpg Cryptile cropped.png 5mio meditareanbasin 01.jpg In other languages Navigation Category:Animals Category:Reptiles Category:Organisms of 5 million AD Category:Organisms of Europe Category:Organisms of the Mediterranean Salt Flat Category:5 million AD